What Should I See Entering Time Machine?

I am using a Lacie 500 gig external drive to retain Time Machine backups. Everything appears to work properly. On entering Time Machine, I see only the contents of my 'Desktop' (except the Mac HD and Lacie HD) and nothing else.
Is this as it should be, or should I be able to access files/data not on my desktop?
In Time Machine settings, I have excluded backup of the Lacie drive itself, otherwise I have confirmed everything is actually backed up by examining the Lacie HD backup itself.
What if anything am I missing here?

With no open Finder windows and all other apps hidden, what I see when I click the TM icon in the dock is a column-view Finder window with Desktop selected in the sidebar, and receding windows backward in time. Is that what you see?
The if I click another sidebar item, such as my home (user) folder, or Documents, I see the contents of those directories, also with receding windows.
If you click the backward arrow in the Time Machine view TM will take you back to the last time there was a change in the selected directory, one change at a time, per click.

Similar Messages

What should be excluded from Time machine backups?

I was looking at the Time Machine options and it is showing my external hard drive( Seagate) as being excluded from backups. Is that correct? If not, how do I correct. Seagate is grayed out & does not appear it can be changed. I recently added SuperDuper to my Mac, so not sure if that is the reason.
I appreciate any help to my question. Thanks!

For some guidance see:
11. What should I exclude, and what should I not exclude?
http://pondini.org/TM/11.html

HT201250 What happens when you select Enter Time Machine to restore from backup and nothing happens?

I have Time Machine running on my Mac for several years. No need to restore from a back up until today. I can see the time of my last backup and that was late yesterday. But when I press enter Time Machine nothing happens.
What do I do next?

See Pondini's TM FAQs for starters.

Upgraded to Mavericks, Enter Time Machine and cannot see any previous backup at all

MBP, upgrade from 10.6.8 to Mavericks.
After "Enter Time Machine", the time line on the right side of the screen does not show any previous backup at all.
In Finder, I can see the backup folder and the inside contents.
In Time Machine Preference, I did select the disk for backup again.
Any idea ? Thank you.

Thank you for your reply and the links.
I did this:
1) I have two ext. USB drives for the MBP time machine backup, did not occur to me to try the other one which is the very first disk, let's call it disk 1, I used for backup, the other one I started using after a year or so.
2) reboot with the disk 1 connected
3) do a "Backup Now", and I forgot the exact dialogs and what they say.
4) something like, "choose a disk for the backup", I chose disk 1
5) it knows I had two disk for backup and ask me if I want to use two disk for backup, click yes
6) the time machine pref. says something like initial backup (after new system installed?)
7) after it done, I can see the previous time machine back up and the time line goes back to where it was before.
8) connect the disk 2 and "Backup Now", it just went to backup right away, after it's done, I can see the prev. backups and the time line too.
Thanks again for your help.

when I ''ENTER TIME MACHINE'', I only see desktop items!!!

New to TM, when I ''enter time machine'' the only windows I have access is my desktop... How can I have access to my HD??? What about going back in Mail???
Thank you

nichols wrote:
New to TM, when I ''enter time machine'' the only windows I have access is my desktop... How can I have access to my HD???
click on the hard drive in the sidebar and the view will switch.
What about going back in Mail???
start TM while Mail is the front application.
Thank you

When i enter time machine with mail open can see past mail . when i open iPhoto and enter time machine can not see past photos have i got a problem ????

when i enter time machine with mail open can see past mail . when i open iPhoto and enter time machine can not see past photos have i got a problem ????

iPhoto '11: Restoring from Time Machine with iPhoto '11 (9.2 or later) and OS X Lion 10.7.2 (or later)

When I enter time machine (on Time Capsule) i see the stack of screen shots and the time line. However, when I roll over the mouse pointer, the time line does not activate. The cancel button does not get me out of the app: have to alt cmd esc. Ideas?

When I enter time machine (on Time Capsule) i see the stack of screen shots and the time line. However, when I roll over the mouse pointer, the time line does not activate. The cancel button does not get me out of the app: have to alt+cmd+esc. Ideas?

I have never seen it but then I run SL which is much more reliable than Lion..
See
http://pondini.org/TM/E4.html
Check the master guru of all TM problems.

I have a western digital hard disk that I am using with time machine and I wanted to do a recovery of my operating system but when I do it i'm not able to see my time machine savings because it needs a password to be activated what can I do ?

How can I do the recovery of my mac mini with my western digital password protected hard disk (it's my timemachine) when I do the process of recovery everything goes well until I have to choose the date of a previous saving from which I can do the recovery nothing appears.

In the sidebar of a Finder window, select the icon representing your startup volume ("Macintosh HD," unless you gave it a different name.) At the top level of the volume are folders with these names, among others:
Applications
Library
System
Enter Time Machine and select the most recent snapshot, which is behind the frontmost window. Are those folders present in the snapshot?

OS 10.8.2 - Click on Enter Time Machine - nothing happens

Not sure if recent history matters, but including it. Last week I had a problem with my display. Took it in to Apple and had it repaired - new logic board installed. Before taking it in, I decided to back up onto iCloud, which I had never used before. I also have Time Machine back-ups on a WD Passport external drive, but I am always worried something could happen to it.
After my 6 year old MacBook Pro came back, I found that the calendar was stuck trying to access the server. I wasn't able to quit Calendar or even Force Quit it - I would have to shut my computer down to make it stop. If I opened it, it resumed trying to access the server for ever. A couple of days later I disengaged from iCloud to solve this problem. It warned me that I would lose my data. I wasn't worried because I also had recent Time Machine backups on the external drive.
Now I would like to reinstall the data I lost using the back ups on the external drive. But when I click on the Time Machine icon in the top menu bar and click on Enter Time Machine, nothing happens. I tried opening it from Finder. No go.
Any suggestions? Or should I head back over to the Apple Store this weekend for help?
Thanks!

I have muddled through this and now have my calendar info back. After posting the question I started closing windows and found that my external drive was no longer connected, though I hadn't intentionally disconnected it. I restarted my system, reconnected my external drive, and then was able to enter Time Machine.
I didn't find my calendar data file.
I decided to try to recover the data from my iPod, but the sync didn't restore the information onto my MacBook.
I figured since I was facing a trip to the Apple store anyway, why not reconnect to iCloud and see what happened. This time it entered "connecting to server" and within two minutes it had connected and I had my appointments and birthdays restored.
Don't know why I had the issue in the first place, but will keep my fingers crossed for the future.

Help: Can no longer see old time machine backups

Hello everyone and thank you for your help.
I have two computers, a Power Mac G5 tower and a Mac Book Pro both backing up using time machine to a USB drive connected to my Time Capsule. Previously my backup drive was connected via usb to my airport extreme, however when I moved the drive my Power Mac G5 stopped being able to see its old backups. However my Mac Book Pro can still see its backups. Both have always connected via WIFI for backups.
Also my G5 tower takes a very long time to "prepare" its backups (usually much longer than 30 minutes) while my mac book pro does not, any insight into why this might be?

Dude, was having the same problem; just saw this solution in the FAQ listed below you. It worked for me, just hold down the Option key while you click on the TM button and select "Other backups".
I had the same setup as you, an external drive that's been used as both an Airport disk and a locally mounted drive. TM gets confused when you switch it up like that.
17. What if I can't see my backups, or the Backups for a different Mac, via Enter Time Machine ?
TM keeps the backups for each Mac separate, and normally only shows the ones for the Mac it's running on, even if there are other Macs' backups on the same disk/partition.
Also, sometimes TM will start a new "sequence" of backups, as if they were from a different Mac.
To see these "other" backups, you need the (badly named) Browse Other Time Machine Disks option. It's available by holding down the Option key while selecting the TM icon in your Menubar, or by control-clicking (right-clicking) the TM icon in your Dock.
You'll see a selection screen showing all the disks/partitions that have TM backups on them. Select the one you want, and you'll be taken to the normal TM "Star Wars" interface, where you should see all the backups on that disk/partition.
This is the 3rd version of this tip. It was submitted on July 05, 2009 by Pondini.

Entering Time Machine From Mail Gives Photoshop Error!

Hello everybody,
This is a very strange one: If I enter Time Machine when Mail is in front, and if Photoshop is opened, I always get this error from Photoshop: "Could not complete your request because of a program error."
What happens is this:
• I choose the Enter Time Machine command (Entrer dans Time Machine in French, in fact).
• I hear a beep, but the computer goes right into Time Machine, without a hitch.
• I can do anything I want in TM.
• After that, when I activate Photoshop, I see the Photoshop error dialog. I close this dialog and Photoshop works perfectly well.
This happens whether a file is opened in Photoshop or not. It does not happen when Photoshop is in front, +*it happens only when Mail is in front*+.
I am puzzled...
RTP

Hi joshz,
Thanks for jumping in. Well, this is most surprising. There is no record of any error caused by this, no reference to this one way or the other, no error of any kind... I searched with different keywords, Adobe, Photoshop, Time Machine, TM, Mail, to no avail. Anyway it's easy as I can reproduce this error dialog at will: With Mail in front, I enter TM, hear the beep coming from Photoshop (!!!), get out of TM and there it is in Photoshop.
Then I look into the console. An error reported by this event should be the last one and dated correctly, right? Well, there is nothing new.
What literally baffles me is the fact that this happens only when Mail is the active application when I enter TM. I tried every other combination to no avail.
Other info about memory in my answer to orangekay.
I must say that it was very thoughtful of you to translate your post in French. I do appreciate the courtesy. And yes, your French is certainly acceptable, taking into account that it is not your mother tongue and that you probably do not use it very often. The reason why I mentioned the command name in French is that I was not sure of the exact name in English as my OS is in French. OK, I speak it with what my Hoosier friends call "an accent". But then I tell them... "Look who's talking!"
Roger, From Up North

I have a 2013 macpro I upgraded to yosemite. Now I find time machine does not work, nor my old back up using a click free wireless back up. What is the status of time machine and yosemite?

What is the status of time machine not working with yosemite?
I upgraded mu mac pro to yosemite and since have found time machine does not work.
Also, my old backup via a clikfree wireless backup does not work any longer.
Is anyone working on this issue?
Is there anyway I can backup my information today and until time machine &
yosemite get fixed?

These instructions must be carried out as an administrator. If you have only one user account, you are the administrator.
Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad and start typing the name.
The title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn't, select
SYSTEM LOG QUERIES ▹ All Messages
from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar at the top of the screen.
In the top right corner of the Console window, there's a search box labeled Filter. Initially the words "String Matching" are shown in that box. Enter the word "Starting" (without the quotes.) You should now see log messages with the words "Starting * backup," where * represents any of the words "automatic," "manual," or "standard."
Each message in the log begins with the date and time when it was entered. Note the timestamp of the last "Starting" message that corresponds to the beginning of an an abnormal backup. Now
CLEAR THE WORD "Starting" FROM THE TEXT FIELD
so that all messages are showing, and scroll back in the log to the time you noted. Select the messages timestamped from then until the end of the backup, or the end of the log if that's not clear. Copy them to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.
☞ If all you see are messages that contain the word "Starting," you didn't clear the text field.
☞ The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of which is irrelevant to solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. Don't post more than is requested.
Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Please don't post screenshots of log messages—post the text.
☞ Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

How to delete a file from time machine without entering time machine mode ?

Is there a terminial hack or a third-party app to delete a backed up file from the finder and at the same time from time machine without having to enter time machine mode, and is there a shortcut to do so ?

Please post your code using code tags (click on CODE above the text area, when posting)
response.setContentType("application/octet-stream");Why octet-stream? Set the correct mime-type.
String disHeader = "Attachment; Filename=\"filename\"";The filename should just be the file's name. Not the complete path to the file! This will tell anyone where the file is located on the server. It's also inconvenient because by default,the browser will suggest it as the name for the download.
Your way of writing to the output stream is just plain wrong. See this snippet (picked from [http://balusc.blogspot.com/2007/07/fileservlet.html])
        BufferedInputStream input = null;
        BufferedOutputStream output = null;
        try {
            // Open streams.
            input = new BufferedInputStream(new FileInputStream(file), DEFAULT_BUFFER_SIZE);
            output = new BufferedOutputStream(response.getOutputStream(), DEFAULT_BUFFER_SIZE);
            // Write file contents to response.
            byte[] buffer = new byte[DEFAULT_BUFFER_SIZE];
            int length;
            while ((length = input.read(buffer)) > 0) {
                output.write(buffer, 0, length);
            // Finalize task.
            output.flush();
        } finally {
            // Gently close streams.
            close(output);
            close(input);
        }

Cannot enter Time Machine after upgrading from Snow Leopard

Hi all,
I've had Lion installed for a few days now and am enjoying the changes to OSX.
Last night I wanted to delete a few redundant files out of my TimeMachine backup and found I could not open the application at all.
I can still backup to Time Machine successfully (so it indicates with preparing, backing up progress (xGB of yGB), finishing, etc). So for the last few days everything appeared to be functioning as expected until last night, when I tried to enter Time Machine.
My specs:
iMac (Oct 2010), 4GB, 1TB, 3.6GHz, backing up to a WD My Passport Essential (1TB) via USB 2.0 (25% full)
I can see the destination drive (and its contents) on my desktop, via Finder and can select it via TimeMachine System Preferences (Select drive). There are no issues 'seeing' or accessing the drive in normal use.
Trying to open the Time Machine application, I have tried via the TimeMachine icon in the TitleBar (ie 'Enter Time Machine'), via Mission Control (double-clicking on Time Machine), typing 'Time Machine' into Spotlight and selecting it from the resulting list, but in all scenarios, nothing happens. Nothing at all. And yet I can backup to Time Machine without a hitch.
I have seen a number of online conversations about the AFP spec having been changed by Apple and third party periphial manufacturers being slow to comply, but using USB, I'm not sure this applies to my case? I have used Macs at home for 8 years and have never heard of AFP until now... So I don't really know if I am impacted by this or not (don't think so).
There have been some troubleshooting solutions involving identifying and deleting the com.apple.timemachine.plist from the Library/Preferences folder (going from memory here) which I did (had to use PathFinder to find the file).
Unfortunately that did not help and Time Machine still refuses to open. There are no errors appearing as a result of trying to open TimeMachine. I have checked the Console, but nothing obvious appears there. I have read others are prompted with an error about AFP, but I get no such error. I can copy files to the drive okay so I can't see how it is the drive. Just Time Machine not wanting to play...
Can anyone suggest anything?
I do have Snow Leopard SuperDupered to another 320GB WD drive if I need to go back, but I don't really want to if I can help it...
Thanks,
Alex Makin

Well finally, after 2 days of trying to work out what was the issue, I have resolved the problem.
Its very strange given that I can successfully back up but not restore, as described in my original post.
One thing I neglected to mention was the fact I had set up my Time Machine backup to use 'sparsebundles'. This allows me to have the external drive plugged into my Airport Extreme and use much like Time Capsule.
It didn't seem relevant at the time since I could backup successfully (and still now, I can't understand why Time Machine knows where to back up to, but doesn't know where to restore from).
I didn't have the Time Machine icon sitting in my dock (never needed to since if I need to restore, I access TM from the TitleBar icon). So in putting the TM app in the dock I played a little around with it by clicking it (as you would normally for any other app in the dock) and eventually held down the mouse key to bring up the menu. Tried 'Enter Time Machine' a couple of times without luck, before trying a menu item along the lines of "Try another backup destination' and voila!! Time Machine opens, animated stars, vertical time line, etc.
Well hang on now... Why the heck can't TM have worked this out already?? Why do I need to look somewhere else for my Time Machine backup, when I've already told TM (in System Preferences) where the backup is?
Pretty darn odd, but there you have it. It was there the whole time, but according to TM, it wasn't...
I still have to select the menu item 'Try another backup destination' each time I want to enter TM, but at least I know where to find it...
I'm assumming its the sparsebundles setting (which I'm sticking with), but at least I know its not my iMac, its not the hard drive, its not Lion (well, it sort of is as Snow Leopard knew where to find it...)
Alex Makin

Entering Time Machine using Screen Sharing

I use a G4 as a filserver, thus it does not need a monitor, and is just stacked under a desk. Now I want to use Time Machine backup for my files. That works.
To enter Time Machine to retrive a file, I need to use Screen Sharing. But Time Machine does not render correctly! I can see that its on - and trying, but no universe, and no buttons or stacked finder windows.. Anyone?

My Intel MacBookPro could run Time machine remotly on my PowerPC G5
But none could run it on the PowerPC G4.
So I wonder whats the logic..

What Should I See Entering Time Machine?

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